Rivalry
by OneMillionHeartsForYou
Summary: This is one of those stories where Panem is like a high school, and the Capitol is the really popular kids. What happens when best friends Gale and Peeta fall in love with the new girl, Katniss? Read and find out!
1. Clash

**HEY GUYS! This be da rewrite ;D Okay I'll talk normally now. So some of the lines are exactly the same but I changed most of it so... I hope it's better this time haha! Please review :)**

**xXx**

"Clothes?"

"Yup!"

"Your um... teddy bear?"

"I don't use that anymore Katniss!" Prim giggles.

"Toothbrush?"

"Yup!"

"I don't know... your stuff?"

"You're really bad at this," she says.

I sigh as I pull mine and Prim's bags along with me. Prim is always so organized. She has to check five times over before she's sure that she has everything. Worse part is she always expects me to remember everything that she packed.

"Hey... why don't you use Snuggles anymore?" I ask.

"Katniss!" she says as her eyes dart around to make sure nobody heard me.

"What are you too _old_ for Snuggles now?" I ask. "Come on, I spent ten bucks on that stupid bear!"

"Sorry but I'd rather have an actual animal... like a cat!" she says.

"Prim we're at a boarding school. You're not gonna have a cat for a while," I point out bluntly.

"I know," she sighs.

I stop when we reach the hallway for kids Prim's age. Twelve... that's the age requirement for living in this hellhole. I lean down and give her a hug before she takes her bags from me.

"Have fun," I say as I put Mother-Mode on. "But not too much fun. And remember to call me."

"I will, Katniss," she sighs before rushing off towards her room.

I continue down the hallway wishing I was as excited as Prim is. But really I hate the idea that I'll be living with one person in one room for one year. One year as in twelve months. Three hundred sixty five days. Okay that's not really true, we do get breaks, but still.

As I walk down the hall my eyes automatically find the two neon colored pieces of paper on each door. There's "Brittany" and "Jessica" in room 210.

Putting the two cliches in one room. Makes sense.

In room 213 I see the names "Annie" and "Johanna" written on pink and green papers. Then right across the hallway is my room. I know because it says "Madge" and "Katniss" on blue and green papers. I take a deep breath... mostly to give myself some time to just turn around, leave, and never come back... but then I open the door. When I walk in, I see a girl my age with blonde hair pulled into a messy bun sitting on the couch. She looks over her shoulder as soon as she hears me come in.

"Hi!" she chirps. "Are you Katniss?"

"Yup," I answer. "Are you Madge?"

"Yes, I'm Madge!" she says as she hops off of the sofa. "So nice to meet you!"

"Thanks," I mumble as she shakes my hand.

"Is this your first year here?"

I nod.

"You're gonna love it!" she says.

Love? School? I don't think so.

"I'm sure I will," I say as I fake a smile.

I walk into our bedroom and put my bag on the bed that she left for me. I shared a room with Prim at home, so I guess this will be fine too. Actually when I really think about it, Madge kinda seems like an older version of Prim. What with the smiley face and the excitement and the happiness...

"Do you wanna meet my friend, Gale?" she asks. "I was just gonna go see his room."

"Uh... sure," I say.

She smiles and takes my hand to pull me with her. That's not gonna fly. I'm gonna have to tell her that I'm not the hand-holding type.


	2. Awkward Encounters

**Soo... since I haven't had much time to write lately I decided to put up some of the old stuff that won't change the outcome of the story. I'm really sorry because you guys most likely want new stuff instead of just reading the old stuff but I really don't have the time... or the inspiration at the moment. Sorry :( Think of it like a marathon! Like when they show re-runs of your favorite television show! Same thing, right? ;)**

**xXx**

The entire walk to Gale's room, Madge tells me about the teachers, classes, rooms, etc. I stopped listening, so she might have even started talking about the chalk and erasers for all I know. As you can probably guess, I'm relieved when we reach Gale's room. It's not that I don't like Madge, I just don't like talking, and she does.

His door has "Gale" written on it in a neon green paper, and then there's a vibrant orange paper that says "Peeta". What kind of name is that? Uh... I guess I'm not really one to talk. She walks right in without knocking. I hope she won't do that when I'm in the bathroom.

"Gale!"

I hear someone say "Huh?" in response like they just woke up. When we walk in and see a boy with black hair stretched across the sofa, I find that my assumption was correct.

"Shouldn't you be unpacking?" says Madge.

"I'll just... ya know, take stuff out as I go," he mumbles sleepily. "Who's that?"

"This is my new roommate, Katniss," she says.

"Hey, Catnip," he mutters.

I don't think he's fully awake yet.

"Katniss!" Madge repeats. "K-A-T-N-I-S."

"S."

"Two S's?"

"Yup."

"Oh, sorry," Gale says as he finally gets up.

"Anyways, why are you sleeping?" she asks.

"Why not? Peeta told me he would wake me when he gets here," he says, stretching his arms and yawning.

"I wanted to ask you about that," Madge says while taking his spot on the couch. "So are you guys like friends now?"

"We've _been_ friends."

"Acquaintances, _I_ think."

"Okay, fine, then we're friends now."

"I don't think I've even seen him since last year," she sighs as if this is a big deal.

"That's too bad," Gale says, failing to hide his indifference.

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. I wonder if Madge talking so much will lead me to indifference, too.

"So how come you're here now?" Madge asks me.

"I guess my mom got sick of me," I shrug.

"That makes two of us," Gale says with mock excitement.

"Really?"

"Kinda."

I guess he's not going to explain.

"Where did you go before this?" she asks.

"You've probably never heard of it," I lie, hoping she won't see the blush on my cheeks.

"Tell anyway. Maybe I have."

I don't _want_ to tell her. So I use the other name, the name that the students call it.

"I went to the Corner School."

"Oh..." Madge says as her face turns very serious.

She's heard of it. I can tell. The "Corner School" is one of the worst high schools in Panem. Pretty much a school where you could get into a fight everyday if you weren't careful, the food was never safe to eat, and the entire place just seemed dark and dirty. Poor. Run-down. People started calling it the "CornerSchool" because, obviously, it was in one of the town corners. But also because it was a lot less embarrassing when people didn't know what school we were talking about. Unfortunately, people started catching on.

"I went to the Corner School for a while," Gale says. "I never saw you there."

"I tried to stay away from the fights as much as I could."

"Well then, that's probably why I don't know you."

"What, did you?"

"Fight? Sure, all the time," he shrugs.

I look back at Madge and see that she's been just staring at us this whole time. With that innocent, sweet look on her face, I can already tell that she wouldn't stand a chance in that school. I'm glad she never tried.

"You wanna see something cool?" I ask her.

"Okay."

I look behind me to make sure that Gale is still in the other room, and then I lift my shirt just the slightest bit so she can see the bruise on the side of my stomach.

"Eww!" she squeals. "What is that?"

"It's a bruise!" I chuckle. "I got it in a fight with Leevy. You know what's funny? We became friends like two days later."

"Eww..." Madge keeps mumbling. "Does it hurt?"

"Only when I touch it."

Luckily, someone opens the door which means I can stop talking. A boy with blond hair and blue eyes walks in and smiles at us.

"I see you've invaded our room already."

"Hi, Peeta!" Madge giggles.

"Hello, Madge," he says while dropping his bag on the table. "And..."

"Katniss."

"Hello, Katniss. How come I've never seen you before?"

"This is her first year here," Madge explains. "She's from the... um..."

"The Corner School."

This wasn't exactly something I wanted everybody to know, but the fact that Madge thinks I'm ashamed or embarrassed by it just makes me a little mad.

"Ah," Peeta says.

Luckily, he doesn't give me any sympathetic looks like Madge did. He sits down so that I have Madge on my left and him on my right.

"Where's Gale?" he asks.

"In here," Gale says as he leaves the bedroom. "Madge took your job."

"I can see that." He chuckles.

"Now what?" Madge asks, letting her head fall onto the cushion behind her. "Soo bored."

"Why don't we go look around off campus?" Gale suggests.

"Ooh, yeah!" Madge squeals. "I hear some new restaurants have just opened!"

"I don't know if I have enough money to be eating at restaurants," Gale says.

"All you have to do is order water and then order the cheapest side dish they have. Then your meal is like two dollars!" I say.

Gale smiles while the other two just stare at me. They can think whatever they want. I've been doing this for years, and it's been working so far.

xXx

I walk in between Gale and Peeta, and I can't help but smile. It feels like they're my personal bodyguards. Madge walks on Gale's other side, but a few inches ahead of us. Gale begins to talk to me to ask me about my friends from the Corner School, and then he tells me about his friends. I learn that the only friend we had in common was Leevy. No wonder we never met. I look at Peeta and Madge from the corner of my eye, and I feel a little guilty. This isn't exactly a conversation they can join.

"So, um... where exactly are we going?" I ask to change the subject.

"A new restaurant a few blocks away from the school," Madge tells me with a smile, obviously happy to talk about something different.

"Hey, isn't that Johanna?" Gale asks while pointing at a girl in a department store across the street.

"I think so," Madge nods. Peeta nudges me with his elbow.

"Gale's in _love _with that girl," he whispers.

"Oh, how charming," I comment as I watch her yell at the terrified girl behind the cash register.

"I'm _not _in love with Johanna," Gale mutters.

Peeta nudges me again.

"He is, trust me." I laugh, and Gale glares at Peeta.

"Shut up," he mutters.

Peeta shrugs but stays silent for the rest of the walk. It's not very long anyway. By the time we get to the restaurant, Gale seems to have cooled off. The waitress brings us to our table, and Madge sits next to me so that she's across from Gale when the boys sit across from us. I can't help but wonder if Madge has a crush on him or something. She went completely quiet when we were talking about that Johanna girl. I decide to shrug it off as the waitress puts a glass of water in front of me. I immediately take a sip so that I don't need to talk first.

"This seems nice," Madge comments. "I'm so happy we came here!"

"You're happy about everything," Gale teases. "You can't think badly of anything. It's just not like you."

"I don't know about that," Madge shrugs.

They both look at each other for a couple of seconds. I look at Peeta, and he smiles at me because he also notices the way they're looking at each other. For some strange reason, I can feel my face getting warmer, so I look down quickly. I pull my phone out of my pocket so that it looks like I had a reason to look down. A message pops up from Prim that reads:

_Kat! I don't know why you won't answer your phone, but I LOVE IT here! I LOVE IT!_

I smile to myself and put my phone back into my pocket. When I look up, Peeta is still watching me. This time, he's the one to look down.

xXx

"I'm so tired," Madge sighs.

"Careful, you're about to choke me!" Gale says.

He picked Madge up to give her a piggy-back ride a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, Madge either holds on too tight or not tight enough.

"Sorry, sorry," she mumbles.

"What do you guys want to do now?" Gale asks.

"Sleep?" I say.

"It's only eight!"

"Yeah, but I've been up since like four!"

"Why?" Gale and Madge ask in unison.

"My sister was so excited about coming to a new school that she couldn't sleep, and she kept me up with her." I groan.

"She must be pretty young if she's still excited about school," Gale chuckles.

"Twelve," I say and he nods.

"Is that who was talking to you before?" Peeta asks. "On your phone?"

"Yeah, that was her," I say as I wonder why he's still thinking about it.

"I'd love to meet her," Peeta says.

"And I'd _love_ to meet Johanna," I say in an attempt to get myself out of the spotlight.

Madge giggles a little bit as Gale groans.

"Trust me, you do not want to meet her," he says.

"Whatever you say!"

When we get to our hallway, Gale puts Madge down and we walk into their room. Madge turns on the cheap television set and we join her on the couch. The first thing that comes on is a show with a bunch of people competing to see who is the best dancer. I used to dance. Then I stopped when my Mom told me I looked like an uncoordinated spaz. Madge starts making comments about who she thinks will win while Gale argues that _whoever_ is clearly not good enough to win. I try to pay attention, but I'm so tired. My eyelids feel heavy so I let them close.

xXx

I wake up when I hear Madge cheering and Gale groaning. When I see the screen, I realize that the winner must be whoever Madge was rooting for. I feel my head resting against something warm, but I can't really tell what it is. I look up and realize it was Peeta's shoulder. That's embarrassing. I sit up as straight as a board.

"Sorry," I mutter when he looks at me.

"It's alright."

I pull out my phone again, but apparently that's not enough to make him look away. So instead I stand up and look down at my three new friends.

"Well, I better go. I was supposed to call my sister back hours ago."

"It's only been like half an hour," Gale says.

"Yeah, but..."

I try to think of something, but I have nothing. Luckily, Madge stands up too.

"I'm tired," she says. "I'll go with you."

"Great." Thank goodness for Madge. "See you guys later."

Madge waves one more time as we walk to the door. The entire walk to our room, Madge brags about how she just _knew _that Kayla would win. I have no idea who Kayla is, so I let my mind wander as she speaks. There's something strange about Peeta, but I can't quite figure it out. I decide that maybe he was just being friendly, and that's that.

I wake up at seven the next morning. Madge's alarm clock blares and I groan and sit up. Why would she set her alarm on Sunday?

"Madge!" I call even though my voice is still raspy from sleeping.

"Huh?" she mumbles. "Oh, sorry. I forgot to turn it off."

She smacks the top of the alarm clock to silence it and then sits up. She pats her head to make sure her curlers are still in place.

"Sorry," she repeats. "You can go back to sleep. I'm gonna take my curlers out."

I shrug and stand up because I know I won't be able to get back to sleep. Madge trudges to the bathroom and starts to slowly remove her curlers. She stops every now and then to yawn. She may be very talkative during the day, but at least I don't have to worry about her being a morning person. I stand in front of the mirror next to her to brush my teeth and comb my hair.

"I could straighten your hair if you want," Madge offers while she runs her fingers through her blonde curls.

"No, thanks," I say.

"At least leave it loose," she insists. "It's so pretty."

She's about to say more, but she is cut off by another yawn. She shrugs and walks back to our room to change out of her nightdress. I follow her and pull out a pair of jeans and a dark green Sweetheart Top. Not exactly my favorite, but Prim likes when I dress up. When I finish changing, I turn to Madge.

"I have to go see my sister today. Do you want to come?" I ask.

"Sure," she smiles.

Suddenly, I hear someone yelling outside. I turn and head for the front door, but Madge tries to stop me.

"They're just fooling around," she sighs. "They do it all the time. It's nothing."

I open the door anyway. The door across from ours that belonged to Annie and Johanna, was open. A boy walks out and looks right at me. If I cared about boys at all, I would have to say that he's pretty... what's the word that most girls use? Gorgeous.

"Well, hello," he says in what I guess is a seductive voice.

"Look, it's seven in the morning, and... Just shut up."

If I wasn't so tired, I might be more polite, but right now, I just don't care. He raises his eyebrow and comes closer so that our faces are only inches apart.

"You know, I've never seen you around here before," he says.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I just transferred."

"Ah," he smirks. "Name?"

"None of your business."

"Someone's a bit snippy," he says. "I know that you're either Madge or Katniss. Are you Madge?"

"No," I mutter.

"Then I guess you're Katniss," he smirks. "I'm Finnick. Finnick Odair."

"Good for you," I shrug.

"You really are a beam of sunshine, aren't you?" he says sarcastically while running his fingertip down my neck. The one simple move sends shivers down my spine for a reason I can't explain. He notices and smirks at me again.

"I think we're going to be good friends, Katniss."

He pats my shoulder and walks away while I silently curse myself for giving him that kind of satisfaction.

xXx

We stop at the cafeteria and find Gale and Peeta sitting at one of the tables near the corner. I follow Madge as she leads me right to them. I sit down next to Peeta because Madge pretty much steals the seat next to Gale.

"You guys are up early," Gale says.

"So are you."

He shrugs and focuses on his food again. I decide to do the same until Peeta pokes my shoulder. When I look up, he points at a brunette girl a few feet away. She's holding a tray and looking around nervously like she has nowhere to go.

"I'll get her," Madge says.

She stands up and approaches the girl.

"Who is that?" I ask.

"Her name is Annie," Peeta says. "Annie Cresta. She's not all _there_."

"You don't mean-"

"Actually, that's exactly what I mean."

We go quiet as Madge pulls another chair to our table. The brunette girl smiles at us and sits down.

"Annie is going to eat with us today," Madge says as if it wasn't already obvious.

Her smile widens but she doesn't actually talk. None of us do, we just start eating again. Once I finish, I look up to see that Annie has been staring at me. I'm not even sure how long that's been going on.

"Uh, hi," I say. "I'm Katniss."

She smiles, and takes a breath like she's about to talk but she only nods instead. She's definitely not a talker, but she seems nice enough.

"Not hungry," she whispers while putting the apple she wasn't hungry enough to eat on my tray.

She smiles at me once again before she stands up and returns her tray. For some reason, I decide that I like Annie.

xXx

"Katniss!" Prim squeals as she flings herself into my arms.

"Hey, Little duck!" I giggle.

She looks over my shoulder at Madge, Peeta, Gale, and Annie, who decided to tag along.

"Hi," Prim says shyly.

They all introduce themselves to Prim. I was a little concerned when Prim went up to Annie, but that quickly turned to surprise when Annie kneeled down in front of her and said:

"You are such a _pretty_ little girl!"

Prim blushes and thanks her. When she comes back to me, I finally get to ask her why she loves it here so much.

"Uh..." Her cheeks turn even redder and she bites her lip. "The people are so friendly!"

"Oh, it's a boy isn't it?" I ask knowingly.

She grins and nods her head.

"If you tell me now, I promise I won't go after him with a shotgun," I say jokingly.

From the corner of my eye, I see that Gale is the only one laughing besides Prim. They're probably the only ones that actually knew it was a joke.

"His name is..." She bounces up and down on her heels. "Rory."

"Wait," Gale says. "Rory? Rory Hawthorne?"

"I think so, yeah!"

"I never knew my brother was a ladies man," he snorts.

"Rory is your brother?" Prim asks as her eyes widen. Gale nods.

"I can honestly say I wasn't expecting _that_," I say.

xXx

Sadly, today is Monday which is the first day of school. Since I spent most of yesterday unpacking, I'm already tired out. My eyes feel dry and tired, so I splash cold water on my face.

"You really think that's gonna wake you up?" Madge asks as fixes her curls once again. "You need some coffee."

"I don't drink coffee," I mutter.

"Why?"

"Because my mother is like addicted to coffee. She gets all shaky if she doesn't have it. It's pretty scary," I say.

"I promise I won't let you get addicted," Madge giggles.

"I'll just skip the coffee, thanks."

Madge shrugs and goes to pick up her baby blue book-bag. I pick up my green satchel and follow her into the hallway. Luckily, Finnick is not there today, and the door to Johanna and Annie's room is closed. I actually feel kinda bad for Annie. It must suck to have to live in the same room as Johanna. Then throw in Finnick, and... Poor, poor Annie. We run down the stairwell and head for the cafeteria again. This time, I see that Annie is already sitting at our table. I smile a little just because I know that she's so comfortable with us. When we walk in, Madge and I grab a tray of food and join Gale, Peeta, and Annie at the table. Except for the normal greetings, we eat in a dull Monday-blues silence. I can feel someone staring at me, so I look up because I thought it was Annie. But it wasn't. It was Finnick. He's sitting across the cafeteria with Johanna and a couple of other people. He nods and winks at me but I just roll my eyes and look down.

"Why is Finnick Odair winking at you?" Gale asks suspiciously.

"I don't know," I sigh. "He's really weird."

Annie purses her lips but stays quiet as usual. I guess that means that she agrees with me?

"You should stay away from him," Peeta says.

"I was planning on it," I snort.

I look up and see that his face was completely serious. Almost like the protective look a boy would have if someone he hated had a crush on his little sister. He stares back at me, but I look down at my food again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey there. I figured I should post an author's note because a bunch of people keep asking me what's going on with my stories. I'm gonna tell you what's going on with all of my stories and I'm going to post this to all of my stories.**

**1. Target The Weak: I am going to continue this one. I just started writing the next chapter but right now I'm just really busy and tired out. That's why I haven't updated in a while.**

**2. Rivalry (this one): I'm still kinda frustrated that the entire story that I set up just got deleted so that's why it's taking me so long to get the story going again, but I am definitely trying to add to it.**

**3. Friends Forever: We're both still working on it but we're still deciding who's going to write the next chapter.**

**4. Thirty Seconds: Okay well not many people read that one. I was hoping people would because that was actually going to be my favorite of the stories I've written so far, but I kinda lost the inspiration so I'm actually going to 'give' that story to TogetherWeCanFly so that she can finish it, so you can check it out when she reposts it.**

**So there's the explanations for my stories. Thanks for reading and showing an interest :)**


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